Mid-Summer Update from Crested Butte

Hello from Crested Butte!

Back in early March when many of us in Crested Butte were suffering with the virus I thought that I just might be taking a long summer vacation from real estate brokering. The stock market was tanking, the oil market was tanking, unemployment was skyrocketing and fear and uncertainty were the rule. I assumed that Crested Butte would not open for the summer tourist season and the real estate market would take a serious pause as our nation sorted through the deadly outbreak.

As it turns out, reopening meant recovering for real estate. Since the outbreak, our local market has outperformed everyone’s expectations. $58 million in Crested Butte area homes and land properties have sold since March 1 and right now there are 150 properties under contract representing over $90 million in volume. The intensity of interest is amazing but at the same time understandable. The notion of COVID Flight is a very real phenomenon around the United States and Crested Butte is getting its own healthy share of the attention. Everyone agrees that travel based vacationing is not happening safely anytime soon so folks are focusing on second home retreats and for some the plan is to move to Crested Butte full time and work remotely.

For the first time since the 2008 market crash rural property locations are seeing strong interest. Secluded homes and 35 acre tracts are going under contract in previously quiet market areas like Red Mountain Ranch, Trappers Crossing, The Reserve on the East River and Danni Ranch. A home on acreage at the Moon Ridge neighborhood near town sold for $5 million!

In Town where inventory is plummeting, 8 homes have sold off since the outbreak with average prices hitting $2 million and two properties selling above $3 million. Another 7 homes are currently under contract with average list prices hovering around $1.7 million. A sub quarter-acre homesite parcel in town just sold in June for $2,279,500. This is the all time high for a town limits location beating the previous record by almost $1 million.

At the Buckhorn Ranch community, two 2,400 SF spec homes have sold in the last month, average price $950,000. And, located way up the Cement Creek drainage above CB South a seasonal access ranch property sold last week for $2.1 million! Thats right, you need a snowmobile to get to it half the year.

Thanks for reading today. To learn more about our market, contact me anytime.

Channing Boucher
Broker Associate
LIV Sothebys International Realty – Crested Butte
970-596-3228